Athenaeum

Throughout history, mankind has shown an ability to allow the darker side of the mind to take control, whether it be in awe or fear, and thus causing unspeakable acts to be committed both in the name of justice and in lawlessness. In the early 1500’s in France, one such case occurred in which a man named Pierre Burgot was …

Society labels folks “career criminals” when they just can’t seem to get things together and live life on the straight and narrow. Often an unbreakable cycle, they go to prison, serve their time, get released, and then go and commit more crimes. True, some never get caught or serve extra time for their additional criminal activities. As it turns out, this …

Rio de Janeiro, images of pristine beaches, relaxation, and a bustling nightlife. However, just as anywhere else in the world, what would otherwise be the dream get away location isn’t immune to the darkness lurking around every corner. Marcelo Costa de Andrade became that darkness in 1991, as he culminated a life of sexual abuse and self-prostitution into a murderous …

Yes, warewolf and no, I’m not drunk – yet. There just so happens to be more than one word (misspelled or not) conjuring up images of half-human monstrum masquerading as ordinary folks by day and transforming into wolves under the night’s moon. Whether you conceptualize werewolves as bipedal humanoids or fancy them as completely transformed wolves, the origin and use …

In the small town of Exeter, Rhode Island in 1892, tuberculosis ran rampant amongst the townsfolk. Weekly funerals weren’t uncommon as the disease took its toll on one family after another. However, one family met a particularly gruesome end; exhumed from the crypt as undead and, with the permission of a reluctant patriarch, killed as vampires. The Brown family members …

Back in February 2000, a man and avid “coon hunter” came forward and told a story about encountering a creature in Texarkana that sounds an awful lot like Bigfoot. The Coon Hunter was an experienced, award-winning hunter, who was licensed to hunt across three states. At the time of the encounter, he was in the Miller County area of Arkansas, …

Imagine you’re a child, running around outside and playing with your friends, only to sit down on a mound of dirty on a hillside and accidentally discover a human skull? As was the scene in Griswold, Connecticut in 1990, when several children led police to a gruesome site. As investigators probed the area for clues, they initially placed blame on …

In the past, we’ve examined the origins of the Pope Lick Monster in Kentucky. Interestingly, this cryptid shares a nickname also used to describe similarly horned humanoid cryptids across the U.S. – the Goat Man. Honestly, it’s unclear how these creatures are connected, if, in fact, they are at all. What we do know is that sightings of half man, …

Around the world, numerous cultures maintain legends of cryptids that all appear to be subspecies of Bigfoot. For example, you’re probably familiar with some of the lesser known varieties, such as the Australian Yowie, but what about Batutut? The Batutut, also known as the Nguoi rung, is a lesser known bipedal creature inhabiting the forests of Vietnam. While many locals …

There’s no doubt that plenty of alligators live in the Florida swamps but what about alligator men? No, not men who hunt alligators or train them but weird hybrids; crosses between man and alligator? An impossibility you might think but wait until you see the mummified body proudly on display at a souvenir store in Washington State. Nicknamed Jake the …